2.24.2012

The Walking Dead - Nebraska & Triggerfinger

Well, signing out of my Gmail has fucked me again. I had written a decent post summing up these two episodes, and when I went post it, the auto-log-out meant that I lost it all. But! Take heart. The post probably wasn't any better than the contents of these two The Walking Deadepisodes. Not entirely disappointing, but certainly not epic.

In "Nebraska" the highlight is a finely crafted scene in a bar, that starts with low-boiling weirdness in a conversation between Rick, Hershel, Glenn and some strangers, and ends in a shoot out. Lori gets in a car accident that's stupid. And Shane gets broodier and broodier while Dale spreads the word that Shane's a dangerous, probable dick. The few well planned, tense moments are too few though and most of the show continues down The Walking Dead's path of telling us whatever any character is thinking directly by having them cry out foolishly all the time. This includes Glenn's "I mean, it was Sophia" soliloquy. As if we really, as an audience ever attached to Sophia as more than a plot device, or another of the series' many contrivances.

"Triggerfinger" deals with the aftermath of the shoot out in the bar. Rick saves a guy because Rick needs to save guys, even if they're dicks. And Shane gets crazier. Lori's car accident turns out to mean nothing. Well... it gives Shane a reason to brood more, and be on the edge more, and declare his undying love more... which makes Lori ask Rick to shoot him. All in all, everyone else just philosophizes and talks about what's going on, how they met people, lost people, don't understand, want to understand, need to strike out on their own, hate Rick's decisions and other filler dialog.

So yeah. Nothing has really changed on AMC's tertiary flagship show. The effects remain solid, but all the action is used to create drama, instead of the other way around. I'm not saying that the zombies should approach and "pick" a fight, but when needless car accidents lead to needlessly easy zombie escapes just to lead to a post-attempted-rape confession of love, well, there's something wrong. If the writing can return to the amazing style demonstrated with the bar scene more frequently, The Walking Dead would be stronger. Instead, we learn another back story about people who used to do things for each other that the one who isn't in immediate danger remembers fondly. Death is everywhere, but they don't need to talk about it. Hell, maybe this show just needs an episode like "Hush" from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Anything to shut these characters up and get them to show us something tense and quiet.

More coming in two weeks. I'm gonna flip back to a two-ep per post style because the show just isn't giving me enough not to bitch about. Still, I enjoy it, so why'm I complainin'? (Southern-style.)